


I Don't Get You, But I Want To

by HALLElujahaha



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 04:06:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11751660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HALLElujahaha/pseuds/HALLElujahaha





	I Don't Get You, But I Want To

Blood was dripping down his chin, and he wiped it away as a smile crept onto his face. He heard a door slam and somebody with big, clunky boots walking towards them, but ignored it. Instead, he grabbed Tad’s collar and pulled him closer, lifting his free hand into a fist slowly; almost mockingly.  
  
“Ronan.” Adam said, and Ronan stopped.  
  
“What?” He spat, but he tilted his head to look at Adam, letting his grip on Tad’s shirt falter.  
  
His other hand was still high in the air, but it now stayed firmly in one place. His snarl and furrowed, angry brows were gone, his face much softer. Tad stirred slightly beneath him.  
  
“Let’s go.” Adam said, simply. And Ronan did.   
He patted Tad on the chest before letting go and gave a lengthy, heavy sigh as he walked towards Adam and Noah. A small smile was playing at his lips, but it disappeared as his eyes met Adam’s.  
  
“What the fuck, Ronan?” Noah screeched.  
  
Ronan simply grunted in reply, standing toe to toe in front of Adam. He crossed his arms, a nervous tick Noah had seen him do often, and finally broke eye contact with the other boy, looking down at his shoes.  
  
“You look like shit.” Adam breathed, and when Ronan snorted, he smirked.  
  
Using his knuckles to lift Ronan’s chin, he rubbed at the bottom of his lip, smearing blood across his thumb. His other hand hovered over his raw, puffy eye. He watched Jonas carefully as he examined his own fist, bony and bruised. It was intimate in a way that Noah didn’t entirely understand. He felt like he was looking in on something he wasn’t supposed to.  
  
“You look like shit.” Ronan murmured, lifting his eyes from his long fingers to Adams, which were hovering somewhere between Ronan’s mouth and his own.  
  
“Just got done with work, asshole.”  
  
Adam dropped both hands to his sides and stuffed them in his coat pockets. His eyes darted around Ronan’s entire face, first to his eyes, then to his bushy eyebrows, the tip of his nose, his busted lip. His cheeks blushed under Adam’s insistent stare. Noah let out a strangled cough behind them. Adam stalked past them and back outside.  
*******  
  
“So what was it this time?”  
  
Ronan picked at a hangnail on his right pinky finger, his eyebrows furrowed in fake concentration. When he didn’t immediately answer, Adam turned to Noah, who raised his hands in surrender.  
  
“Don’t ask me.” Noah paused, looking sheepishly into his lap. “But Tad can be kind of a dick.”  
  
“Don’t defend him, Noah.”  
  
“Don’t tell him what to do, Adam.” Ronan said, turning his head to look out the passenger window.  
  
Adam rolled his eyes, gripping onto the steering wheel a bit tighter. His knuckles were white, and his fingers were starting to feel numb. At the stop light, he popped each individual one. He glanced at the back of Ronan head, his reflection barely visible in the window. He didn’t understand him. He wanted to understand him; why he picked fights with guys like Tad, why he made a hobby of drinking himself into oblivion, why he couldn’t seem to take anything seriously. But he didn’t think he ever would.  
  
“Lights green.” Noah mumbled from the back seat.  
  
Adam looked back to the road, stepping on the gas fast. Ronan stomped his foot along with the song playing over the radio obnoxiously. From the corner of his eye, Adam watched as he was bopped his head along, too, his hands were drumming on his knees. There was a splotch of dried blood on his jaw. He was smirking in a way Adam knew he wanted him to see.  
  
“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Adam snapped.  
  
“Hey, don’t talk about Noah that way.”  
  
Noah leaned onto the console from the back seat and punched Ronan in the arm. Ronan cackled.  
  
“Why do you keep doing this? You’re going to end up in jail or the hospital or-“  
  
Noah head popped out from behind Adam’s seat. “A casket?”  
  
“Thank you, Noah. A fucking casket.”  
  
Ronan snorted and said, “You worried about me, Parrish? I’m touched.”  
  
“Just tell me why you did it.”  
  
“Why does it matter?”  
  
“I’m trying to wrap my head around why you do the stupid shit you do.”  
  
“You never will.”  
  
“Tell me, Lynch.”  
  
“Not right now.”  
  
“Ronan.”  
  
“Not. Now. Parrish.”  
  
Adam threw his head against the back of his seat. He gripped at the wheel tighter and sped up without meaning to. The three boys sat in silence until they got to Monmouth, except for Noah’s occasional humming from behind them.  
  
“Thanks for the ride,” Noah said as he slipped out of the backseat. He said the next part soft enough so only Adam could hear before slamming the car door behind him. “Go easy on him.”  
  
Adam put the car in park and unbuckled his seatbelt. It was late, so it was dark enough that the boys could only see the rough edges of each other’s silhouettes. Adam put his crossed arms on the top of the steering wheel and rested the side of his head against them, closing his eyes. He waited for Ronan to speak.  
  
“He was talking about your neighborhood.”  
  
Adam froze. He opened his eyes and watched Ronan as Ronan watched him.  
  
“What about my neighborhood?”  
  
“I don’t know, Parrish. He’s a tool.”  
  
“I know. Now what about my neighborhood?”  
  
Ronan sighed, resting his shaved head against the headrest. He reached his hand out to Adam’s, brushing his knuckles with the tips of his fingers, letting his pointer finger slide up Adam’s arm to his right shoulder, up to his jaw. Adam felt his ears turning pink. Ronan’s voice was barely a whisper.  
  
“Nothing important.”  
  
“It must have been if you got so worked up about it.”  
  
“I’m always worked up when it comes to you.” Ronan said, snatching his hand back from Adam’s face.  
  
A tense smile was barely visible on his lips. Suddenly, Adam no longer cared what Tad had said.  
  
“Should probably head out. I smell like dirty laundry and you look like a murder scene.”  
  
“How is that any different from any other night?”


End file.
